9781422271780

MASTERS OF ART

and except for one aunt, who was an amateur painter, the family had no interest in the arts. When Monet was five, the family moved to Le Havre, a port on the north coast of France at the estuary of the Seine, and his father entered a partnership with his brother-in-law, a well-to-do ship’s chandler. Monet was unhappy at school, learned little, and spent his time on the beaches and cliffs or in boats on the water whenever possible. It was at that time that his interest in the movement of water began, and with

all nature, it remained with him throughout his long life. Indeed, most of the characteristics that he revealed in his mature life were already evident in the child. He was independent, in little need of praise or social approbation, irreligious, and concerned only with what he learned from his own experience. Perhaps most fortunately for him, he was stimulated by antagonism and adversity, both of which he was to experience early in his working life as a painter. On the 9